New Orleans Hospitals are finally finished evacuating--EDITED..NOT DONE

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I apologize---I misread this last night---I thougth only two were left and this article meant they were all done.

My apologies--I was rushing to share good news and in my haste I did not read it carefully enough.




New Orleans Hospital Evacuations Finish


September 02, 2005 11:29 PM EDT
Two of New Orleans' most troubled hospitals were evacuated late Friday after desperate doctors spent days making tough choices about which patients got dwindling supplies of food, water and medicines.

Rescuers finally made it into Charity and University hospitals and evacuated all remaining patients and staff.

"The last information I have is that all of the buildings are empty," said Don Smithburg, head of the Louisiana State University hospital system.

About 2,200 people were evacuated, including 363 patients. Some were taken out on stretchers and others on piggyback.

Three terminally ill patients died during the evacuation. Smithburg did not know how many died waiting for help.

At Charity, the largest public hospital and trauma center in the city, gunshots on Thursday had prevented efforts to evacuate more than 250 patients.

The evacuation resumed Friday after state police stepped up their protection, Smithburg said.

Earlier in the day, the hospital's morgue had 12 bodies, and another five were stacked in a stairwell - in both cases under water. Other bodies were in other parts of the hospital, Smithburg said.

With food and water running out, some hospital employees gave each other intravenous fluids while waiting for rescue, Smithburg said.

As for the doctors and nurses: "Some of them are on the brink of being unable to cope any longer. We just can't get our people out fast enough," Smithburg said.

At University Hospital, about 500 family and staff members had joined 110 very ill patients and hundreds of others from the general community needing evacuation.

"We're starting to make some headway," said Knox Andress, an emergency room nurse in Shreveport, La., who helped coordinate relocation efforts.

Paula Dees of Tallahassee, Fla., said her father, Dr. Oscar Ballester, called her early Friday morning from University, where he and his wife, Dr. Gabriela Ballester, had been working since Saturday.

"They're just begging for help," Dees said. "They're rationed a liter of water a day and have minimal food. He keeps saying, 'They forgot about us.'"

Doctors at both Charity and University had called The Associated Press on Thursday, pleading for help.

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[Free4Life11]

Great news!

[SherryNC]

Thanks for sharing the good news. :)

[MagicKingdom05]

Good to hear. People forget that it takes time to get these things done especially when you have people shooting at those who are trying to help.

[tiggersmom2]

God Bless those nurses, doctors and patients....I am so relieved they are out of that situation.

[pixieprincessmom]

Family friends son was there. He called on the way out to say he was okay, but had to go with his patients. They should be back together soon.

[PixieDust32]

Great News!!!

[luvthatduke]

Praise God.

[Pea-n-Me]

I am very proud of my fellow nurses as well as all the other staff who cared for these patients under such extreme circumstances. It wouldn't surprise me if they later have to deal with issues of post traumatic stress. :(

[FoodLover]

No one could be happier about this than my family. My sister-in-law is a nurse who stayed behind in New Orleans to care for her hospital patients. She went through an absolute nightmare.

The hospital had almost no electricity. The generators failed one by one. No communications -- even the internal phone system didn't work. The only water was a few cases of bottled water dropped off by the local police the first day after the storm.

Get this: most of the hospital staff just *walked out* a couple of days after the hurricane. They got in their cars and abandoned over 300 patients! My SIL was one of only about 30 people who stayed.

The remaining staff had to CARRY the patients down stairs (8-story hospital with no electricity, so no elevators) to areas where they could care for them.

They never got one single bit of help from the government the whole time, she tells me. The hospital finally arranged for private helicopter ambulances and the staff moved all the patients out to the parking garage in preparation for the airlift. Then FEMA commandeered their helicopters! So the patients were out in the elements overnight with no food. My SIL said she spent the whole night walking around giving them a little water (no food left) and that was all she could do.

Finally on Thursday they got helicopters in and the patients were airlifted out. But no one evacuated the staff. They had to drive themselves out. (Fortunately for them, this particular hospital had access to dry-enough roads.) She got in her car and discovered someone had siphoned the tank dry. She had to "hitch" with a co-worker to Lafayette. When she arrived there, she had no shoes (lost in the shuffle somehow) and was wearing the same scrubs she'd had on for five days.

We didn't even get the whole story when we spoke with her today. She was exhausted (said she'd had maybe 4 hours of sleep during the entire ordeal) and weeping -- and my SIL is normally quite a stoic person.

Well, I am normally a very mild-mannered person. But I am SO angry at the way our government has handled this crisis.

I've always loved my sister-in-law dearly, but she is now my hero, let me tell you.

[Virgo10]

I pray this is true. Do I believe it 100%? NO! Here's why. On Friday morning they had a doctor on TV who was at one of these hospitals. He said that the news had reported his hospital was almost completely evacuated Thursday night into Friday morning. He found that odd because when he checked Friday morning there were still 300 patients occupying the floors.

I don't believe everything I hear on TV and it wouldn't surprise me if the Spin Doctors are weaving their sticky webs right about now to save some reputations. I also found it disturbing that only hours after Bush showed up to make his visit, the supplies showed up.

This whole thing has left me extremely suspicious of our government.

[FoodLover]

I pray this is true. Do I believe it 100%? NO! Here's why. On Friday morning they had a doctor on TV who was at one of these hospitals. He said that the news had reported his hospital was almost completely evacuated Thursday night into Friday morning. He found that odd because when he checked Friday morning there were still 300 patients occupying the floors.

I really suspect you're right. It was irritating me last night when the news agencies were reporting the staffs of all NO hospital had now "been evacuated." Uh, my SIL wasn't "evacuated." She and her co-workers had to evacuate themselves!

The complete lack of planning is amazing. It's crazy that there was not even a plan in place for protecting the most basic infrastructure and resources such as hospitals!

I'm scared about what may happen if we have another terrorist attack. Based on this experience, it looks like government officials will be running in circles like headless chickens...

[Free4Life11]

I am glad that your SIL is ok! She is a true hero AND I HOPE OUR GOVERNMENT RECOGNIZES PEOPLE LIKE HER, THE TRUE HEROS OF HURRICANE KATRINA!

They comandeered the helicopters??? Unbelieveable and disgusting...did any of the patients not make it?

[Free4Life11]

I also found it disturbing that only hours after Bush showed up to make his visit, the supplies showed up.

I was thinking the same thing but didn't want to say it. They were talking on the news about how when Bush was flying over New Orleans the people were having their first food in days...

[Free4Life11]

I'm scared about what may happen if we have another terrorist attack. Based on this experience, it looks like government officials will be running in circles like headless chickens...

You're not the only one! This is really making me mad and nervous and scared.

[swilphil]

I think there are a lot of stories similar to the one from Food Lover's SIL that we will hear more of in the near future. I'm glad they finally were able to get out, but I can understand why she was angry.

[DisneyCP2002]

I am so glad they finally got them evacuated. Thank you for sharing this news.

[FoodLover]

did any of the patients not make it?

I'm not sure. I really didn't want to ask -- she was already so upset. If they all made it, it must have been a miracle.

[Free4Life11]

I'm not sure. I really didn't want to ask -- she was already so upset. If they all made it, it must have been a miracle.

I understand. The only reason I wondered is because if someone died after FEMA comandeered the helicopter, I wouldn't be surprised if their family sued FEMA.

[Rozzie]

those poor nurses and doctors. As a fellow nurse, it sickens me and makes me boil in anger how they were treated. I hope someone has to answer for this.

[Island_Lauri]

I am so glad they finally got them evacuated. Thank you for sharing this news.


Sorry but this isn't true according to CNN.com today - http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.hospitals/index.html


NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Evacuations at some New Orleans hospitals were expected to proceed Saturday, while conditions at the city's largest public hospital were reported to be deteriorating further.

As of Friday night, more than 200 patients remained at Charity Hospital, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported.

The hospital has no power, no water and no food. Some patients are on ventilators being worked by hand pumps; the bodies of those who have died are being stored in stairwells, as the hospital's morgue is flooded. Two patients died on a ramp while waiting to be evacuated.

The public health situation is worsening, and some chronically ill patients are lacking their medication.

"We are trying as hard as we can to get them some help," said Charity's Dr. Ben Deboisblanc.

Hospital evacuations were dealt a blow Thursday as sniper fire prevented some patients from being airlifted.

On Friday, Charity staffers watched as patients and non-essential medical personnel at nearby Tulane University Hospital were picked up by helicopters.

Charity, one of the oldest facilities in New Orleans, is a public hospital which accepts indigent cases and those without medical insurance, Gupta reported. It's also a Level 1 trauma center, however. Many of its patients were there before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on Monday.

Federal officials are trying to double their capacity at the New Orleans airport, which has been set up as a field hospital, Mike Leavitt, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, told CNN. "We are deeply concerned about these people coming out of these difficult conditions."

[Deb & Bill]

Had we waited for FEMA to evacuate our patients, they would still be there. We used our own employees from other facilities, military trucks and planes that we arranged by pulling a few strings and putting our noses on the line, and buses that our management worked to keep out of the hands of FEMA to get our patients, employees and family members out. We finished our evacutation yesterday afternoon with the last of the employees settled into shelters away from NOLA by late last night.

We would be in the same boat as Charity. Literally. There is 6-8' of water around our hospital.

Our employees performing the rescue were shot at multiple times and had to pull back several times. Luckily no one was injured during the rescue attempts. All of our employees and their family members are okay, except for losing everything they have worked for. Our organization is standing behind them, keeping them paid, trying to relocate them, helping them to recover the best we can.

Our management showed they are made of some pretty good stuff. And the same about our employees. It makes me proud to work there.

[MoniqueU]

I heard there were up to 1700 patients left to be evacuated on FoxNews today.

[C.Ann]

Those doctors and nurses are absolute heroes in my book! No thoughts of their own safety or the loss of their homes - just totally focused on the well being of their patients.. :flower:

[SueM in MN]

at 2:20 pm CST, CNN just reported that all the patients were evacuated from Charity Hospital in NO, but that there are still as many as 1800 patients in hospitals thru the hurricane affected areas still waiting to be evacuated.
They said that the water is now flowing out of NO back into Lake Pontchartrain, but it could still take 80 days to drain all the water from the city.
They also had a story about the newborns/NICU babies who were evacuated. They were evacuated all over the place without their parents. The neonatologist who evaluated the babies at the place they were filming said that the babies were in amazing shape considering what they had been thru. He commended the staff who took excellent care of their patients- most of whom had worked round the clock without much sleep or food for themselves.

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I apologize--this was from a news scroll last night on my computer.

Perhaps it was just one hospital and they erred.

[C.Ann]

I apologize--this was from a news scroll last night on my computer.

Perhaps it was just one hospital and they erred.
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Hey - at this point we'll take whatever progress we can get, right? :flower:

[luvthatduke]

May God bless each and every person who stayed
and helped in the medical facilities.
I pray your blessings are tenfold.